Alonso, Cynthia. Aquarium. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2018. Pen and pencil digital illustrations of shades and details reminiscent of muted tones and constructed styling. The girl’s dress is made of fish, as are the leaves and water and her own imagination. She settles into narrative tradition when she captures a fish and races to bring it home to make her very own aquarium with a pipeline to the sea. The fish, of course, escapes the boundaries of expectation, and lessons are learned about our relationship to nature. There is meaning in art! Ages: 4+. For more wordless splish-splashing and cogitating by the sea, be sure to read Wave (Suzy Lee, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2008).

Bozzi, Riccardo; illus. Violeta Lopiz; trans. Italian Debbie Bibo. The Forest. NY: Enchanted Lion, 2018. Trees get older, if we let them, and human do, too. If we let them. Even if we don’t. Bozzi gives us a meditation on life that Lopiz supports with lush and textured colors. It’s a beautiful book. The aesthetics burst with white pages, translucent pages, and pages devoted to full declarations of color while the philosophy of the narrative slowly but surely moves along. A really beautiful book, for all generations. Ages: 6+.

Clarke, Maxine Beneba; illus. Van Thanh Rudd. The Patchwork Bike. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2018. Australian import. The acrylic illustrations on recycled cardboard tell the story of a girl and her brothers who live in a village inside their “mud-for-walls home.” Her brothers are crazy, her Mum is fed up, and she has the very best of grins. Filled with references to protest movements like Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street, the story is all about the girl and her brothers who make a bike out of what might seem like nothing. Nothing is nothing. Under the “stretching-out sky,” these kids soar. Worth relishing again and again. Ages: 4+.

Doerrfeld, Cori. The Rabbit Listened. NY: Dial Books for Young Readers, Penguin, 2018. Life is hard. Adults know it, kids know it, and sometimes we all need help with it. This year there is a fine group of picture books that know it, too. Doerrfeld’s may be the best: he gives us a girl to whom something sad happens: the something amazing she built gets destroyed. The chicken is the first to notice, and he tells her to talk about, but she doesn’t want to. The bear tells her to shout about it, but she doesn’t fell like doing that, either. More animals come, and they all have advice for the one way to do things. Taylor gets smaller and smaller, alone at the bottom of a white page. And then Rabbit shows up. Quietly. Slowly. And sits next to Taylor, silently. Until Taylor is ready to talk, and shout, and remember, and laugh. And rabbit? He listens. He listens the whole time, through when Taylor gets up, jumps up, big on the page, ready to build again. “It’s going to be amazing.” And it is. Ages: 4+. For another tender exploration of emotion read Brian Lies’ The Rough Patch (NY: Greenwillow Books, HarperCollins, 2018). The illustrations are made of rich and deep acrylics, oils, and colored pencils rendered with masterful, expressive strokes. The story is about Evan the Fox who does everything with his dog, until the unthinkable happens. Evan shuts down. Then he slashes his garden to the ground – if it can’t be a happy place anymore, and it can’t with his dog gone – then he is going to make it the most desolate spot around. The double-spread of destruction is in dark green hues of gloom and the loss and despair in Fox’s eyes demand a poignant recognition of grief. But the sun rises again, and Fox finds a pumpkin vine with prickly stems that stubbornly insists on growing. So Fox tends to it, and the vine responds to his care. There is light in darkness.

Flouw, Benjamin; trans French Christelle Morelli & Susan Ouriou. The Golden Glow. NT: Tundra Books, Penguin Random House, 2018.Part picture book, part primer on outdoor adventure preparation. Fox journeys into the woods dressed in his yellow parka and leaning on his trusty walking stick, to look for a rare flower for his botany book. He encounters Bear, Wolf, Marmot, and Mountain Goat and shares snacks from his pack and asks for advice. Throughout the narrative are double spread inserts of facts – one describes what to pack on a hike, another the leaves of different kinds of trees, another the weather zones of a mountain, and another the parts of a flower. Fun and informative, with a dash of conservation slipped in. Ages: 5+. For a slyly humorous take on camping (and retreating back to Dad and TV and the toilet), try the Swedish import The Grand Expedition (Emma Adbage; trans. Annie Prime, NY: Enchanted Lion Books, 2018).

Fogliano, Julie; illus. Lane Smith. A House That Once Was. NY: Roaring Brook Press, 2018. Fogliano’s text has a lyrical and rhythmic bent perfect for reading aloud – two children traipse through the woods and find an old house and wonder, “Deep in the woods is a house just a house that once was but now isn’t a home.” Lane’s illustrations support her tone and mood perfectly – as the children explore, Lane uses India ink on vellum pressed onto watercolor paper with oils to create soft and layered paths toward discovery and possibility. As the children imagine clear stories of “the someone who once was” who lived in the house, the illustrations morph into oil paints of straight lines with digitally combined collage. Clearly a pleasure for both author and illustrator, and for readers a work of art. Ages: 3+.

Henkes, Kevin. A Parade of Elephants. NY: Greenwillow Books, HarperCollins, 2018. A deceptively simple picture book – it’s a counting book, a concept book, a book introducing adjectives and adverbs, and a book about the passage of time. No one but Henkes could fit so much in with so deceptively little. Lovely. Ages: 2+.

Higgins, Ryan T. We Don’t Eat Our Classmates. NY: Disney Hyperion, 2018.Penelope is super, super excited to go to school and meet all the other children, because children are delicious. Penelope’s full name is Penelope Rex. When she gets to school she eats the human children. The teacher tells her, “We don’t eat our classmates, ” and so Penelope, guiltily and with head hanging, burps out her classmates. Her classmates are not amused. Poor Penelope. None of the other kids will play with her, or be her friend, and she can’t figure out why. Higgins’ art is fabulous and filled with unspoken instances of children getting eaten and regurgitated, again and again. The narrative is filled with fabulous lines, supported by art in on the joke. “Penelope’s mom with ponies on it. Ponies were Penelope’s favorite. Because ponies are delicious.” The accompanying look of contented glee on Penelope’s face as she hugs her backpack is hysterical. Great for a read-aloud, again and again. “Because children are delicious.” Ages: 4+. For a more traditional go-back-to-school book, pick upKate Berube’s Mae’s First Day of School (NY: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2018). Mae decides she’s not going to school, because what if nobody likes her? So once her mom drags her to the dreaded building of education, she climbs up a tree. She thinks she could probably live there. After all, she has her lunchbox, and what else does a girl need? Then Rosie climbs up. “I’m not going to school,” she says. “Me neither,” said Mae. “Would you like a cookie?” And then a tall lady climbs up, a teacher by the name of Ms. Pearl. She’s not going to school, either. What if no one listens to her? The ink, flashe paint, acrylic paint, and colored pencil illustrations are simultaneously soft and precise. Mae’s hands and legs are sharp and crossed as she refuses school and dangling and curved as she makes friends in her tree. All’s well that ends well, and thank goodness for the Ms. Pearl’s of the world. Ages: 4+.

MacKay, Elly. Red Sky at Night. NY: Tundra Books, Penguin Random House, 2018. A collection of sayings about the weather with exquisite photographs of ink and watercolor paper dioramas – the sayings and pictures both are worth poring over, again and again. The double spread of “When the wind is in the west, then the fishes bite the best,” is particularly impressive: a humpback whale swims under water, from which mountains rise to house homes while a red boat sails through the middle with birds flying above and fish swimming below. More information about the sayings included. Recommended for all coastal dwellers. Ages: 5+.

McCanna, Tim; illus. Richard Smythe. Watersong. NY: A Paula Wiseman Book, Simon & Schuster, 2018. A hymn to nature for the toddler and pre-toddler set. It’s less a story and more of a collection of onomatopoeias that are fun to say and gorgeously match the watercolor and digital illustrations”. “Squish, squelch, glop,” is the fox frolicking through the water, startling the ducks. “Trickle dribble gurgle burble babble bubble,” is the fox swimming down the river. What a wonderful day, and what a wonderful read-aloud. Ages: 2+.

Miyares, Daniel. Night Out. NY: Schwartz & Wade Books, 2018. Miyares plays with color to tell his stories, and here he provides a vision of childhood not often seen in picture books, not since Ludwig Bemelman’s Madeline of the 1940’s and 1950’s. This time, the girl is a boy, and he is alone and without cheer, last in a line of beds. The gouache and colored pencil illustrations are thick with blues, dark and heavy with despondence, until the boy spots an invitation – as he sits up in bed the bright moon fills the window on the page, bringing light. The words of the text are spare – the next spread conveying the beginning of his journey reads only, “A decision.” The rest of the meaning we derive from the picture of the boy, gaining in color, climbing out the window. He travels far and wide, and befriends a giant turtle who takes him across the sea to a cave full of animals who say, “Come in! Come in! You’re just in time for tea!” They have tea and they dance and they sing and the night ends and the boy goes home, excited for a story to share. The boys from the row of beds gather round to listen, blues dimmed by a new warm and friendly yellow glow.

Mora, Oge. Thank You, Omu! NY & Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 2018. This is a book to snuggle with, to dance with, to bust and take to the kitchen and cook with. Omu is cooking, cooking something that smells so good the whole neighborhood is drawn to the absolute deliciousness. So Omu shares her stew with everyone: a little boy, a police officer, a hot dog vendor, a shop owner, a cab driver, a doctor, an actor, etc. Every time someone knocks, Omu shares. The collage illustrations of acrylics, markers, patterned paper, and old-book clippings give the story a splash and dash feel as neighbors cut in and out of the story, enjoying Omu’s delicious stew. When her put runs empty, she realizes she held back none for herself, and sniffs and feels “sorry and blue.” Until, who? A knock-knock on the door, and all the neighbors splash and dash back in with their own specialties to share. Let the celebration begin. A story with a moral that’s as fun as can be. Ages: 4+. For another gorgeous telling of a darn good grandma-like gal, go to Antje Damm’s latest, The Visitor (trans. German Sally-Ann SpencerWellington, New Zealand: Gecko Press, 2018). Damm’s diorama’s are the best in the business. Elise lives alone, and is afraid of absolutely everything - spiders, people, even trees. So she never goes out, and never does anything, and her house is dark and drab. And lo! A child appears to retrieve a lost toy, and brings light and color with his lack of fear. So simple, so sweet, would that it were. Still, a lovely book, and the slow but sure rise of color and light will uplift any reader’s mood. Ages: 4+.

Early Fiction

Stead, Philip C. Vernon Is On His Way: Small Stories. NY: A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press, 2018. Vernon, Skunk, and Porcupine, the friends from A Home for Bird (NY: A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press, 2012) are back and together again. Stead’s gouache, crayon, chalk pastel, and charcoal drawings are as filled with contemplative personality as ever – he is a master of conveying kindness and concern. The friends fish together, and sit in silence together, and worry over things like how to do things they don’t know how to do, together. None know how to fish for example, and Porcupine in particular is anxious about what to do. “Maybe,” he suggests, “we should say hello.” The friends agree, and Porcupine is relieved - Stead’s downward lines stretch Porcupine’s body toward confirmed inspiration while managing to convey sure and warm belief and friendship in Vernon’s eyes, and complicit companionship in Skunk, who is looking to the water for a fish to whom they can all say hello. Stead is a master of conveying gentleness and small pleasures, and we can all read in appreciation. Ages: 5+.

Middle Fiction

Anderson, M.T.; illus. Eugene Yelchin. The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2018. Ingenious. Anderson and Yelchin join forces to tell the tale of two nations, two people, two hopes, and two fears, from two sides and two perspectives of two sides. The narration is the truth. The illustrations are the imagined exaggerations of xenophobic insecurities. Ingenious. Our heroes are the Elfin scholar Magister Brangwain Spurge, sent as a bumbling and unknowing ambassador spy to the Court of the Mighty Ghohg, land of the goblins, who sees goblins as evil slurping demons of destruction, and the honorable Goblin Werfel the Archivist, assigned to host the visiting elf, who believes elves to be mannerless and merciless cold killers bent on the annihilation of all things goblin, and who fervently hopes Spurge will behave. Each are somewhat right (the leaders of both are truly awful, with absolutely nebulous intentions) and each are somewhat wrong (the people of both generally just want to live, peacefully, and really just want all the war and killing to stop). The adventures wrought on our two heroes by their respective politicians border on the absurd, as such adventures always do, and the worlds of both are rendered as particularly and wild as the names of both suggest. Spurge and Werfel, Werfel and Spurge. They grow and learn from each other, even learning to be embarrassed and ashamed of their stereotypes, and to become friends, united and brave against the nefarious nature of power. There’s a lesson or few here, and the marvelous humor and irony and detail of the words and pictures let us listen and laugh, without the feeling of a didactic hammer. Spurge and Werfel are earnest disasters, just like the rest of us. Such is life. Ages: 10+.

Applegate, Katherine. Endling: The Last. NY: HarperCollins, 2018. Byx is the last of her kind, the last dairn alive, the endling. Near extinct, her family was surviving, quietly, until the Murdano came, the human bent on killing. And he killed. Her family, her clan, her species. We none of us can survive alone, so Byx sets out on a quest to find more of her kind. She meets a wobbyk, a girl, a thief, and a ferivet. And learns that the dairn isn’t the only group the Murdano is intent on destroying. Byx’s quest gets a whole lot bigger. First in a projected fantasy trilogy, this is Applegate at her best. Ages: 9+.

Connor, Leslie. The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle. NY: Katherine Tegen Books, HarperCollins, 2018. Mason is the big boy, the sweaty boy, the dyslexic boy, the poor boy, the one the bullies mock. He’s got one good friend, Benny. And then Benny turns up dead. On Mason’s family’s orchard near Benny’s saw. No one believes Mason didn’t do it. The police lieutenant won’t leave him alone. But Mason knows he didn’t do it. And why would anyone kill a kid, anyway? It had to be an accident, right? So with the help of his school social worker, he works at getting his story out. And with a new friend, he remembers what friendship is. And with his stubborn grandmother, he figures out what family is. And with the neighbor’s dog, he feels what companionship is. What caring is. People can call you names, call you stupid, not care who you are. But with friends, family, and a dog, the truth will out. He’ll be okay. Connor’s last line says it best: “Knowing what you love is smart.” Ages: 9+

Jacobs, Jaco; illus. Jum Tierney; trans. Afrikaans Kobus Geldenhuys. A Good Day for Climbing Trees. London: One World Publications, 2018. Marnus is the brother in the middle, stuck between Donavan the gorgeous and Adrian, the nine-year-old financial genius. The summer is not going well. And then he meets a girl named Leila and he ends up following her up a tree with his dishcloth on his shoulder. A tree the municipality wants to cut down to build a pipeline. Mrs. Merriman joins in with her poodles and brings sandwiches, and the caretaker down the road visits with coffee and lets the kids take turns using the loo. Soon Leila’s mum brings a blanket and spends the night watching over them. And then the next night, too. And then the students come, and the news, and the people in the neighborhood. Because a tree should be forever, even when everything is always changing. Ages: 9+.

Johnson, Varian. The Parker Inheritance. NY: Arthur A. Levine Books, Scholastic Inc., 2018. Part The Westing Game, part serious and straightforward look at racism and oppression and segregation and how the past affects the future, part kid adventure, part family drama, part, part, part. Johnson fits it all in. Candice finds a letter and it relates to her grandmother. So she and her friend Brandon start to research, and find more than they ever wanted to know and also not enough, about themselves, their family, their city, the world they live in. It’s a full book, and worth every minute it takes to read. Ages: 8+.

Kelly, Erin Entrada. You Go First. Greenwillow, 2018. Two kids, Charlotte and Ben. One in Pennsylvania, one in Louisiana. Both are kind of loners, but not really on purpose. Both have families who are going through some pretty serious things. Both of them like scrabble, and that’s how they meet. Growing up isn’t easy, and it doesn’t always make sense. It isn’t always logical. It isn’t always fair. Friends make all the difference. Ages: 8+

Kadohata, Cynthia. Checked. NY: A Caitlyn Dlouhy Book, Atheneum, 2018. There’s one thing Conor figures out for sure – he’s “gotta grow up and have a good life.” If he’s happy, everyone around him will be happy. He’s just got to work hard, grow up, be a good person, and everyone will be happy, including him. He loves his dog Sinbad and his Dad and hockey – the order of importance might fluctuate, but not really – and he loves his Mom (or imagines he must have), his grandparents (he thinks he will once he gets to know them, at least), and his coach and teammates and friends and Aunt Mo (he knows he does), and his neighbors, too. He’s a good kid, Conor, and he knows life can be hard but that’s no reason not to keep going. Highly recommended; Newbery Award winner Kadohata has done it again. Ages: 10+

Schmitt, Adam P. Speechless. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2018. A difficult and beautiful book of reckoning. Jimmy is being forced to speak the eulogy at the funeral of his cousin Patrick. Trouble is, Jimmy has nothing nice to say. He hated his cousin Patrick. He hated being forced to spend time with his cousin Patrick. He hated that Patrick always ruined everything and that his own mother made him do everything with Patrick, even though Patrick always, always ruined everything. And as the wake goes on, and Jimmy thinks about all his experience with Patrick and about all the terrible things Patrick did, he starts to hate himself for not knowing Patrick better. For not helping him. For not listening to him. For obeying the family mantra of not interfering. For just sitting, and just watching, even when he saw Patrick’s tired eyes. For knowing there was something really wrong with Patrick, and that Patrick was hurting, and for never doing anything about it. A difficult and beautiful book. Ages: 12+

Yang, Kelly. Front Desk. NY: Arthur A. Levine Books, Scholastic, 2018. Mia Tang has a lot going on. She lives in a motel, not a house. She’s an immigrant, her whole family is, and they help other immigrants. The owner of the motel her family manages is mean and frugal to the point of being really, really mean. What’s a girl to do? How can she save her family from being homeless, from turning to moneylenders who give a whole new meaning to mean, and how can she save everyone else, too? Mia Tang has work to do. She’s on it, and nothing is going to get in her way. A spunky book about realistic trauma with the happy ending of dreams coming true. Ages: 8+.